BAMAKO –  Two Canadian diplomats and two European tourists released by Al-Qaeda-linked captors after months as hostages met Thursday with dealbroker Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure en route for home.

Robert Fowler, UN special envoy to Niger, and his assistant Louis Guay met with the president first. Fowler, visibly thinner and sporting a long beard, was overheard telling the Malian president "thank you" but did not make any public declaration.

Canadian ambassador Isabelle Roy, who was present at the meeting, thanked Mali for the "efforts deployed".

"It was the first time Canada asked us to assist them and we felt it was our duty to contribute to the release of its nationals," Toure said in a short statement.

According to the entourage of the Canadian diplomats they are set to leave Bamako Friday morning.

Toure also separately met with two European women released, German Marianne Petzold and Swiss Gabriella Greitner. The 77-year-old Petzold had bandages around one hand and did not speak to the media.

Before meeting Toure, Greitner briefly spoke telling journalists "I'm suffering, I'm hurt," according to a translation provided by a European journalist present.

It is not sure when Greitner and Petzold will return to Switzerland and Germany respectively.

Malian authorities said Wednesday the four were released after being held hostage "in the Sahel zone" and were generally in good health.

There were no details about where they had been detained within the desert zone that covers Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger.

The kidnappers are still holding two others: Greitner's husband and a Briton.

The Canadian diplomats were snatched in Niger while the four tourists were kidnapped while visiting a Tuareg festival in northern Mali.

Mali, Canada, Germany and Switzerland were also keeping silent about the conditions of the negotiated release although Canada's prime minister stressed that no ransom had been paid.

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